Johannesburg - A fifty-four-year old Ghanaian woman, Theresa Nkrumah, will be spending Christmas and New Year’s Eve behind bars after being remanded for allegedly murdering her husband and his girlfriend by burning them to death.
Nkrumah will reappear before the Oda District Magistrate Court on January 8 after it was alleged that on December 13, 55-year-old Emmanuel Osam and his girlfriend, Akosua Tiwaa, 34, died after fire engulfed their bedroom, in the former family house near Oda in the east, where they were both sleeping, Ghana Web reported on Friday.
The arson attack began after petrol was poured through an open window and subsequently lit. The two were unable to escape because the door to their room had been locked and padlocked.
Hearing their screams for help other residents of the house managed to break the door down but by that time both Osam and Tiwaa had sustained serious, life-threatening burns.
The victims were rushed to hospital where they received specialised medical treatment. Medical staff were unable to save them and Tiwaa died shortly afterwards while Osam succumbed to his injuries on December 16.
According to evidence, the angry wife began to suspect that her husband, with whom she has three children, had been having an affair with Tiwaa. Nkrumah subsequently had a number of verbal altercations with the two but the affair continued.